mind's eye music

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

A Saucerful of Secrets is the second studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd. It was recorded at EMI's Abbey Road Studios on various dates from August 1967 to April 1968 and was released on 29 June 1968, through EMI Columbia in the UK, while the album was released on 27 July 1968 in the US by Tower.

The album was recorded before and after Syd Barrett's departure from the group. Due to Barrett's behaviour becoming increasingly unpredictable, David Gilmour was brought in, in January 1968. As a result, A Saucerful of Secrets became the only non-compilation Pink Floyd album on which all five band members appeared, the first for Gilmour, with him appearing on five songs ("Let There Be More Light", "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun", "Corporal Clegg", "A Saucerful of Secrets", and "See-Saw"), and the last for Barrett, with him on three ("Remember a Day", "Jugband Blues" and "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun").

Background

From mid to late 1967, Syd Barrett's erratic behaviour became more apparent, and at one performance of the band's first US tour, he slowly detuned his guitar while on stage. The audience seemed to enjoy such antics, unaware of the rest of the band's increasing consternation. Interviewed on Pat Boone's show during this tour, Barrett's reply to Boone's questions was a "blank and totally mute stare". Barrett exhibited behaviour in a similar style during the band's first appearance on Dick Clark's popular TV show American Bandstand. Barrett kept his lips closed during a mimed performance of "Apples and Oranges".

Recording and structure

Recording with Syd Barrett

The album was recorded at EMI Studios in London.The first songs recorded for the album were Roger Waters' "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" and an unreleased Barrett track, "Scream Thy Last Scream"; both recorded on 7–8 August 1967. The two tracks were arranged to be released as a single on 8 September, before it was vetoed by the band's record company, EMI.The band recorded "Vegetable Man"at De Lane Lea Studios on 9–11 October, and returned later in the month, on 19 October, to record "Jugband Blues", with producer Norman Smith booking a Salvation Army band, at Barrett's request.Overdubbing "Remember a Day" at the sessions; the song, which was an outtake from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn sessions, features Barrett on slide guitar, the band took a break from the album sessions to record what become their third single, "Apples and Oranges",on 26 and 27 October.A few days later, the band recorded the B-side, "Paint Box", shortly after recording "Paint Box", the band went on a tour of the US.
Partway through a tour of the US, "Apples and Oranges" was released as a single in November, failing to chart at all. The band eventually went back to De Lane Lea and recorded the unreleased track "Vegetable Man". Sometime around Christmas, David Gilmour (Barrett's old school friend) was asked to join the band as a second lead guitarist to cover for Barrett when his erratic behaviour prevented him from performing. As Barrett had, up until then, written (or, save for a few songs; co-written) all the songs on their debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, as well as the band's three singles up to this point, the initial plan was to keep him in the group as a non-touring member—in similar style to what The Beach Boys had done with Brian Wilson—but this soon proved to be impractical. For two days from 10 January 1968, Pink Floyd reconvened at EMI Studios, attempting to work on older tracks: Waters' vocals and Wright's organ were overdubbed on to "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun", while Mason added vocals to "Scream Thy Last Scream". Upon leaving the Floyd, Barrett said to Melody Maker: "I suppose it was really just a matter of being a little offhand about things".

Recording with David Gilmour

When Gilmour joined the band, the Floyd performed briefly as a five-man piece, from 12 January till the 20th. For a handful of shows Gilmour played and sang while Barrett wandered around on stage, occasionally coming out of his delirium to join in playing. In between these five-piece gigs, the group rehearsed a few Waters-penned songs on 15 and 16 January. During the next session on 18 January, the band, joined by Smith, jammed on rhythm tracks; Barrett didn't attend this session. On 24 and 25 January, the band recorded a song, logged as "The Most Boring Song I've Ever Heard Bar 2" at Abbey Road. The band recorded "Let There Be More Light", "Corporal Clegg" (which features lead vocals by Nick Mason) and "See-Saw" all without Barrett, despite manager Andrew King claiming Barrett performed the slide solo at the end of "Let There Be More Light". The other band members soon grew tired of Barrett's antics and, on 26 January 1968, when Waters was driving on the way to a show at Southampton University, picking the members up on the way, the band elected not to pick Barrett up: one person in the car said, "Shall we pick Syd up?" and another said, "Let's not bother." Barrett was finally ousted from the band in late January 1968, leaving the new incarnation of Pink Floyd to finish the album; "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" is the only song on which all five band members appeared. After Barrett was ousted, the band struggled to come up with material for the album.
From February 1968, the band performed and recorded as a four-piece, the first tracks they recorded were "It Would Be So Nice" and "Julia Dream".In early February it was announced that the Waters-penned track, "Corporal Clegg" would be the band's next single, however, due to pressure from the label, the band abandoned releasing "Corporal Clegg", and placed it on the album instead. Richard Wright's "It Would Be So Nice" was released in April was a single, with "Julia Dream" on the B-side. Throughout April, the band was taking stock of the songs recorded up to that point. Waters blocked the release of the two tracks, "Vegetable Man" and "Scream Thy Last Scream", on the album, though the band retained "Jugband Blues", and the Waters-written "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" which Barrett played on. With not enough material to fill the album's last 12 minutes, the band started piecing together several pieces of material—that the finished song the band later said that they felt happy with—that was to become the title track of the album, "A Saucerful of Secrets". Mason and Waters planned the track out as if it were an architectural design, including peaks and troughs. Producer Smith didn't like the song, stating to them that they "just can't do this, it's too long. You have to write three-minute songs," On 25 June, the band recorded another session for Top Gear, the session feature two tracks from Saucerful: "Let There Be More Light" and a shortend retitled version of the title track, titled here as "The Massed Gadgets of Hercules".

Songs

Like The Piper at the Gates of Dawn before it, the album contains space rock and psychedelic rock songs. However, unlike Piper, which was dominated by Barrett's compositions, A Saucerful of Secrets contains one Barrett original, "Jugband Blues". AllMusic described that with A Saucerful of Secrets, "the band begin to map out the dark and repetitive pulses that would characterize their next few records." Wright sings or shares lead vocals on four of the album's seven songs, and contributes vocals on the eleven-and-a-half-minute instrumental opus "A Saucerful of Secrets", making this the only Pink Floyd album where his vocal contributions outnumber those of the rest of the band.

With Barrett seemingly detached from proceedings, it came down to Waters and Wright to provide adequate material. The opening, "Let There Be More Light", penned by Waters, continues the space rock approach established by Barrett. "Let There Be More Light" evolved from a bass riff that was part of "Interstellar Overdrive". Both "Remember a Day" and "See-Saw" use the childlike approach that was established on their debut.Wright remained critical of his early contributions to the band. "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" was first performed with Barrett in 1967. The success of the track was such that it remained in their live setlist until 1973 where it appeared in a greatly extended form. Waters later performed the track during solo concerts from 1984 and later. Waters borrowed the lyrics from a book of Chinese poetry from the Tang Dynasty, like Barrett had used in "Chapter 24". "Corporal Clegg", is the first Pink Floyd song to address issues of war, a theme which would endure throughout the career of Waters as a songwriter for the band, culminating on the 1983 album The Final Cut. "A Saucerful of Secrets" was originally written as a new version of "Nick's Boogie". Waters and Mason originally planned the track out as an architectural design.The track is titled as four parts, on Ummagumma. A staple in the band's live set until summer 1972, a live version of the song was recorded on 27 April 1969 at the Mothers Club in Birmingham for inclusion on Ummagumma. "Jugband Blues" refers to Barrett's departure from the group ("It's awfully considerate of you to think of me here / And I'm most obliged to you for making it clear that I'm not here"). A promotional video was recorded for the track. The band's management wanted to release the song as a single, before being vetoed by both the band and producer Norman Smith.

Unreleased songs

As well as "Jugband Blues", the album was to include "Vegetable Man", another Barrett song. The song was to appear on a single as the B-side to "Scream Thy Last Scream". The band performed "Jugband Blues", "Vegetable Man", and "Scream Thy Last Scream" for a BBC Radio Top Gear session, recorded on 20 December, and broadcast on 31st. Two additional Barrett songs, "In the Beechwoods", and "No Title" (frequently referred to on bootlegs as "Sunshine"), were recorded early into the album sessions. At least one other song, "John Latham", was recorded during these sessions, and remains unreleased.

Release and reception

Professional ratings

Review scores

Source

Rating

Allmusic

BBC

no rating

Piero Scaruffi

8/10

Rolling Stone

no rating

The Rolling Stone Album Guide

Yahoo! Music

no rating

This is the first of several Pink Floyd album covers that were designed by Hipgnosis, and was only the second time that an EMI group (The Beatles were the first) was permitted to hire outside designers for an album jacket. The album was released in the UK on 29 June 1968 on EMI's Columbia label as both mono and stereo LPs, reaching number 9 in the UK charts. It was released in the US by the Tower Records division of Capitol, where it remains the only Pink Floyd album to not chart. However, when reissued as A Nice Pair with the original version of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn after the success of The Dark Side of the Moon, the album did chart at number 36 on the Billboard 200. "Let There Be More Light" was released as a single, backed with "Remember a Day", in the US on 19 August 1969.
The CD stereo mix of the album was first released in 1988, and in 1992 was digitally remastered and reissued as part of the Shine On box set. The remastered stereo CD was released on its own in 1994 in the UKand the US. The mono mix version of the album has never been officially released on CD.

Upon its release, Rolling Stone magazine's review was unfavourable, writing that it is "not as interesting as their first" and "rather mediocre", highlighting the near-departure of Syd Barrett as one of its detractions.
In a retrospective review for Allmusic, Richie Unterberger called the album "gentle, fairy-tale ambience", with the songs that move from "concise and vivid" to "spacy, ethereal material with lengthy instrumental passages." In a review for BBC Music, Daryl Easlea said Saucerful was "not without filler", saying "Jugband Blues" was "the most chilling" song on the album. Piero Scaruffi called the title track "one of the greatest masterpieces of psychedelic rock".

Rest in peace, Mr. Barrett and Mr. Wright. Your legacy as pioneers has been well-documented, and the both of you will never be forgotten. Interstellar Overdrive continues!

Till next time, never attempt space travel without a safety net. I'll see you on the DSOTM!﻿

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

By request, and by personal preference, here's the latest from folk/prog rock legend Roy Harper.

Man & Myth is the title of Roy Harper's 22nd studio album. Released 47 years after his debut album, Sophisticated Beggar, it is his first studio release in 13 years.

Background to album release

"I thought I had retired..." Harper explained in a Reuters interview. "...I was in one world, but the next world had found me, so I had to respond to it" he said. "That meant gathering my wits and going forward with a new record...""I've written poetry, prose, essays and articles and gone through the motions of being Roy, but I didn’t have the will to make another album until recently..." said Harper. "...I was inspired to write again around 2009, by many of the younger generation finding me and asking, who are you?...".

Album promotion

On 18 July 2013 Mojo magazine's website featured the track "Time is Temporary" as their Track of the Day.

"Time is Temporary" is the sound of a man who is capable of contemplating his mortality as well as musing on coincidence, convergence and circumstance" said Harper. The track is "based on a thought... that maybe I will pass you in the street, or in a train, or a restaurant, and we'll look at each other and have the same sort of feelings, but never take it any further, never take the next step that both of us seemed to want to, so we'll never know what might have been".

In the run up to the album's release, Harper was interviewed by Laura Rawlings on her BBC Radio Bristol show on 15 August 2013. The interview closed with the track "Desert Island", from Harper's 1988 release Descendants of Smith, being played.

Recording

Of the seven tracks, four were recorded with Jonathan Wilson at his Fivestar Studios in Echo Park. "Heaven Is Here", "The Exile", and "January Man" were recorded in County Cork. Pete Townshend plays lead guitar on "Cloud Cuckooland".

Roy's undergoing a bit of a witchunt in the UK as we speak. Seems some woman is dredging up some old accusations of child molestation and is prosecuting Roy. Let's hope he retains his freedom to enjoy the release of this fine effort.

Monday, November 11, 2013

Recently, one of the rarest 70's punk 45's from the Midwest sold on ebay. It had been listed for less than a day, and a wealthy punk 45 collector snapped the obscure gem for...$2000!

An unidentified record collector and dealer from Collinsville, IL confirms that he bought the artifact from an estate sale, and found fliers from the area in a record jacket.

The story behind the rare 45: Terry Jones, Max Load founder, made a handful of hand-designed, hand-colored pic sleeves for "X-Rod/Magazine Sex" as promos for the release of their only single. They were sent to industry types, to bar owners for possible gigs, and given to superfans.

Maybe 10 of these unique items were created, at random, and quickly built a reputation around the band, and the release of the single itself back in 1979. The band is currently receiving praise that somewhat escaped them 35 years ago with a BDR Records release of Epic Records demos, their 2-sided single, and tons of archival recordings by a very prolific songwriting band from St. Louis, MO. Their recent release includes an LP, a CD, and a DVD recorded in 1981.

I'm the one, just above, with the arrow pointed at my melon!

This goes to show you, that if you have any memorabilia from the 70's rock era, get it out!

This new addition to the stable promises to be a worthy newcomer, even as it's getting up in age (but showing zero signs of wear):

The Mackie CR-1202 came out in the early 90's to fill a void in the pro audio market. Sound men operating PA's for hire need a reliable, inexpensive solution to do their job well, and home recording buffs needed the same solution for their application. Hence the diminutive but powerful 1202.

This market leader features 4 mic inputs across the channel strip, and 4 stereo line inputs. Left channel inputs are designated for stereo, and the mic inputs feature high-quality preamps with tons of headroom. It wasn't Greg Mackie's first foray into pro audio gear, he'd started building tube guitar amps in the 70's. Leaving Boeing to pursue his own business, he created TAPCO and sold millions of his first pared-down, high-quality mixers under that brand. Years later, the demand for solid components were still in demand, and he filled that need with the 1202 and it's bigger brother, the CR-1604 (16 channels of XLR inputs with the Roto-Pod accessory, and 4 aux sends, as opposed to the 2 included on the 1202).

The aux sends can be used, alternately or separately, as effects sends or monitor mixes, in conjunction with amps/wedges. The EQ section features simplistic bass/treble controls, neither sweepable. The sweepable mids feature would be added to the VLZ series, and was definitely welcomed for the guys in the trenches trying to tweeze a serious sound mix from an unruly rock band or a finicky jazz combo.

Rotary pots replace conventional faders to save space, and reduce cost. The internals were not to be skimped on, and the overall build quality is superb ("built like a brick" is how they describe it: solid and very sturdy in every way). The 1202 has an internal power supply (unlike Behringer mixers' wall wart supplies of this size class). This thing could get knocked off a rack and still work fine.

Dumbo-ear rack mounts make this mixer roadworthy, and for small groups on a small budget, the diminutive CR-1202 more than proved itself in the field, and quickly set the standard for budget- to midrange-priced mixers. Soon they parlayed their early successes by going into other audio products (SS power amps, studio monitors, etc.) and larger-format consoles.

Before selling to LOUD Industries in the 2000's, they were briefly owned by St. Louis Music, who also manufactured the Crate and Ampeg brands.

This little jewel came in at a steal... $65! That's less than a quality stomp box, or high-end cables!

Timing is everything when purchasing pre-owned gear, and my timing was perfect this time! It took me less than 5 minutes to unhook my old mixer from my PA rig, swap out the wiring, and mount the board in my SKB Gig Rig! Killer sound on a budget, a definite win-win!

Thursday, October 31, 2013

OK, kiddies, this is another in a series of Great Bands' Albums reviews.

Since we (as a collective society of awareness) were psychedelicized by the likes of The Beatles and their masterpiece Sgt. Pepper, and as I alluded to in that review, things stranger yet were brewing in the same location at the exact time SPLHCB was released in the summer of love.

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is the debut album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, and the only one made under founding member Syd Barrett's leadership. The album, named after the title of chapter seven of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows and featuring a kaleidoscopic cover photo taken by Vic Singh, was recorded from February to May 1967. It was produced by Beatles engineer Norman Smith and released in 1967 by EMI Columbia in the United Kingdom and Tower in the United States, in August and October respectively.

The release of the album in the US was timed with the band's tour of the US. In the UK, no singles were released from the album, but in the US "Flaming" was offered as a single. The US version of the album has a rearranged tracklisr, and contains the UK non-album single, "See Emily Play". Two of the album's songs, "Astronomy Domine" and "Interstellar Overdrive", became central to the band's setlist around this period, while other songs were performed only a handful of times.

Since its release, the album has been hailed as one of the best psychedelic rock albums of the 1960s. In 1973, it was packaged with the band's second album, A Saucerful of Secrets, and released as A Nice Pair to introduce new fans to the band's early work after the success of The Dark Side of the Moon. Special limited editions of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn were issued to mark its thirtieth and fortieth anniversaries in 1997 and 2007, respectively, with the latter containing bonus tracks. In 2012, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was voted 347th on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

Background

Architecture students Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Richard Wright and art student Syd Barrett had performed under various group names since 1962, and began touring as "The Pink Floyd Sound" in 1965. They turned professional on 1 February 1967 when they signed with EMI, with an advance fee of £5,000. Their first single, a song about a kleptomaniac transvestite titled "Arnold Layne," was released on 11 March to mild controversy – Radio London refused to air it.About three weeks later the band were introduced to the mainstream media.EMI's press release claimed that the band were "musical spokesmen for a new movement which involves experimentation in all the arts," but EMI attempted to put some distance between them and the underground scene from which the band originated by stating that "the Pink Floyd does not know what people mean by psychedelic pop and are not trying to create hallucinatory effects on their audiences." The band returned to Sound Techniques Studio to record their next single, "See Emily Play," on 18 May. The single was released almost a month later, on 16 June, and reached number six in the charts. Pink Floyd picked up a tabloid reputation for making music for LSD users. The popular broadsheet News of the World printed a story nine days before the album's recording sessions began, saying that "The Pink Floyd group specialise in 'psychedelic music', which is designed to illustrate LSD experiences." Contrary to this image, only Barrett was known to be taking LSD; authors Ray B. Browne and Pat Browne say he was the "only real drug user in the band".﻿

Recording

The band's record deal was relatively poor for the time – a £5,000 advance over five years, low royalties and no free studio time. It did, however, include album development, and unsure of exactly what kind of band they had signed, EMI gave them free rein to record whatever they wanted. They were obliged to record their first album at EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London, overseen by producer Norman Smith, a central figure in Pink Floyd's negotiations with EMI.

Balance engineer Pete Bown, who had mentored Smith, helped the album have a unique sound through his experimentation with equipment and recording techniques. Bown, assisted by studio manager David Harris, set up microphones an hour before the sessions began. Bown's microphone choices were mostly different from those used by Smith to record the Beatles' EMI sessions. Because of Barrett's quiet voice, he was placed in a vocal isolation booth to sing his parts. Artificial double tracking (ADT) was used not only on vocals but also on some instruments, to add layers of echo.The album featured an unusually heavy use of echo and reverberation to give it its own unique sound. Much of the reverberation effect came from a set of Elektro-Mess-Technik plate reverberators – customised EMT 140s containing thin metal plates under tension – and the studio's tiled echo chamber built in 1931.
The album is made up of two different classes of songs: lengthy improvisations from the band's live performances, and shorter songs that Barrett had written. Barrett's LSD intake escalated part-way through the album's recording sessions. Although in his 2005 autobiography Mason recalled the sessions as relatively trouble-free, Smith disagreed, and claimed that Barrett was unresponsive to his suggestions and constructive criticism. In an attempt to build a relationship with the band, Smith played jazz on the piano, while the band joined in. These jam sessions worked well; Waters was apparently helpful, and Wright was "laid-back," but Smith's attempts to connect with Barrett were less productive: "with Syd, I eventually realised I was wasting my time." Smith later admitted that his traditional ideas of music were somewhat at odds with the psychedelic background from which Pink Floyd had come, but nevertheless he managed to "discourage the live ramble" (as band manager Peter Jenner termed it) and guide the band toward producing songs with a more manageable length. Barrett would end up writing eight of the album's songs and contributing to two instrumentals credited to the whole band, with Waters creating the remaining composition, "Take Up Thy Stethoscope And Walk". Mason recalled how the album "was recorded in what one might call the old fashioned way: rather quickly. As time went by we started spending longer and longer."

Recording started on 21 February with six takesof "Matilda Mother" (titled "Matildas Mother"). The following week, on the 27th,the band recorded five takes of "Interstellar Overdrive," and "Chapter 24". On 16 March, the band had another go at recording "Interstellar Overdrive" in an attempt to create a shorter version, and "Flaming" (originally titled "Snowing") which was recorded in one take,with one vocal overdub. On 19 March, six takes of "The Gnome" were recorded. The following day, the band recorded Waters' "Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk". On 21 March, the band were invited to watch the Beatles record "Lovely Rita", the next day the band recorded "The Scarecrow" in one take. The next three tracks ("Astronomy Domine," "Interstellar Overdrive" and "Pow R. Toc H.") were worked on extensively between 21 March and 12 April, due to having (or being) lengthy instrumentals. Between 12 and 18 April, the band recorded both "Percy the Rat Catcher," and a currently unreleased track called "She Was a Millionaire."
"Percy the Rat Catcher" received overdubs across five studio sessions, and then was mixed in late June. A majority of the album is credited solely to Barrett, with tracks such as "Bike" having been written in late 1966 before the album was started. "Bike" was originally titled "The Bike Song," and it was recorded on 21 May 1967.Because of Barrett's increased LSD use during the recording project, by June he looked visibly debilitated.

Release

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was released on 5 August 1967. The album contains whimsical lyrics about space, scarecrows, gnomes, bicycles and fairy tales, along with psychedelic instrumental music. Pink Floyd continued to perform at the UFO Club, drawing huge crowds, but Barrett's deterioration caused them serious concern. The band initially hoped that his erratic behaviour was a phase that would pass, but others, including manager Peter Jenner and his secretary June Child, were more realistic:

... I found him in the dressing room and he was so ... gone. Roger Waters and I got him on his feet, we got him out to the stage ... and of course the audience went spare because they loved him. The band started to play and Syd just stood there. He had his guitar around his neck and his arms just hanging down.

—June Child

To the band's consternation, they were forced to cancel their appearance at the prestigious National Jazz and Blues Festival, informing the music press that Barrett was suffering from nervous exhaustion. Jenner and Waters arranged for Barrett to see a psychiatrist – a meeting he did not attend. He was sent to relax in the sun on the Spanish island of Formentera with Waters and Sam Hutt (a doctor well-established in the underground music scene), but this led to no visible improvement.
The original UK LP (with a monaural mix) was released on 5 August 1967, and one month later it was released in stereophonic mix. It reached number six on the UK charts. The Canadian LP had the same title and track listing as the UK version. The original US album appeared on the Tower division of Capitol on 26 October 1967. This version was officially titled simply Pink Floyd, though the original album title did appear on the back cover as on the UK issue. The US album featured an abbreviated track listing,and reached number 131 on the Billboard charts. A UK single, "See Emily Play," was substituted for "Astronomy Domine," "Flaming" and "Bike". Released in time for the band's US tour, "Flaming" was released as a single, backed with "The Gnome". The Tower issue of the album also faded out "Interstellar Overdrive" and broke up the segue into "The Gnome" to fit the re-sequencing of the songs. Later US issues on compact disc had the same title and track list as the UK version. The album was certified Gold in the US on 11 March 1994.
About being handled on Tower, Jenner commented that: "In terms of the U.K. and Europe it was always fine. America was always difficult. Capitol couldn't see it. You know, 'What is this latest bit of rubbish from England? Oh Christ, it'll give us more grief, so we'll put it out on Tower Records', which was a subsidiary of Capitol Records [...] It was a very cheapskate operation and it was the beginning of endless problems The Floyd had with Capitol. It started off bad and went on being bad."

Packaging

Up-and-coming society photographer Vic Singh was hired to photograph the band for the album cover. Singh shared a studio with photographer David Bailey, and he was friends with Beatles guitarist George Harrison. Singh asked Jenner and King to dress the band in the brightest clothes they could find. Once the band had been relaxed with several joints, he shot them with a prism lens that Harrison had given him. The cover was meant to resemble an LSD trip, a style that was favoured at the time.

Barrett came up with the album title The Piper at the Gates of Dawn; the album was originally titled Projection, up to as late as July 1967. The title was taken from the title of chapter seven of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows which contains a visionary encounter with the god Pan, who plays his pan pipe at dawn. It was one of Barrett's favourite books, and he often gave friends the impression that he was Pan, that he was the Piper. The moniker was later used in the song "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," in which Barrett is called "you Piper".

Live performances

Although there was never an official tour of the album, the band gigged in the UK to promote the album. They played dates in Ireland and Scandinavia, and in late October the band was to embark on their first tour of the United States. It was unsuccessful, mainly because of the mental breakdown of Barrett.In his capacity as tour manager Andrew King travelled to New York to begin preparations, but he ran into serious problems. Visas had not arrived, prompting the cancellation of the first six dates. The band finally flew across the Atlantic on 1 November, but work permits were not yet obtained, so they settled into a hotel in Sausalito, California, just north of San Francisco. Elektra Records had turned Pink Floyd down, and so the band were by default handled by EMI's sister company, Capitol, which assigned them to their subsidiary, Tower Records. Tower released a truncated version of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn on 21 October 1967. After a number of cancellations, the first US performance was given 4 November at Winterland Ballroom, following Janis Joplin fronting Big Brother and the Holding Company.

For the American tour, many numbers such as "Flaming" and "The Gnome" were dropped, while others such as "Astronomy Domine" and "Interstellar Overdrive" remained, and were central to the band's setlist during this period, often performed as encores until around 1971. "Astronomy Domine" was later included on the live disc of Ummagumma, and adopted by the post-Waters Pink Floyd during the 1994 Division Bell tour, with a version included on the 1995 live album Pulse. David Gilmour resurrected "Astronomy Domine" for his On an Island tour.

Communication between company and band was almost non-existent, and Pink Floyd's relationship with Tower and Capitol was therefore poor. Barrett's mental condition mirrored the problems that King encountered; when the band performed at Winterland, he detuned his guitar during "Interstellar Overdrive" until the strings fell off. His odd behaviour grew worse in subsequent performances, and during a television recording for The Pat Boone Show he confounded the director by lip-syncing"Apples and Oranges" perfectly during the rehearsal, and then standing motionless during the take. King quickly curtailed the band's US visit, sending them home on the next flight.
Shortly after their return from the US, beginning 14 November, the band supported Jimi Hendrix on a tour of England, but on one occasion Barrett failed to turn up and they were forced to replace him with singer/guitarist David O'List borrowed from the opening band the Nice. Barrett's depression worsened the longer the tour continued. Longtime Pink Floyd psychedelic lighting designer Peter Wynne-Willson left at the end of the Hendrix tour, though he sympathised with Barrett, whose position as frontman was increasingly insecure. Wynne-Willson, who had worked for a percentage, was replaced by his assistant John Marsh who collected a lesser wage. Pink Floyd released "Apples and Oranges" (recorded prior to the US tour on 26 and 27 October), but for the rest of the band Barrett's condition had reached a crisis point, and they responded by adding a new member to their line-up.
Tracks 8–11 on the UK album edition were played the least during live performances. The success of "See Emily Play" and "Arnold Layne" meant that the band were forced to perform some of their singles for a limited period in 1967, but they were eventually dropped after Barrett left the band. "Flaming" and "Pow R. Toc H." were also played regularly by the post-Barrett Pink Floyd in 1968, even though these songs were in complete contrast to the band's other works at this time. Some of the songs from Piper would be reworked and rearranged for The Man and The Journey live show in 1969 ("The Pink Jungle" was taken from "Pow R. Toc H.", and part of "Interstellar Overdrive" was used for "The Labyrinths of Auximines").

Beginning in September 1967, the band played several new compositions. These included "One in a Million", "Scream Thy Last Scream", "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" and "Reaction in G", the latter of which was a song created by the band in reaction to crowds asking for their hit singles "See Emily Play" and "Arnold Layne".

﻿

Pink Floyd, of course, went on to bigger and greater heights with the addition of David Gilmour, but the true fans of the British psychedelic acolytes will always revere the LP that the Piper fronted for the band, and are willing to forgive his psychedelic excesses in the process. He went on to write and release two noteable LP's with Floyd assistance from Gilmour, and his collected works today are considered to be among the most prominent artistic artifacts of the 14 Hour Technicolour Dream era.

We'll unravel that skein at a later date... I'm waiting for my dose to wear off...

Keep your Anderson up and your Council assembled! More arcane references later!

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Sunday, October 27, 2013

System synergy is an all-important factor in achieving satisfying sound quality, and Osage Audio specializes in that exacting science.

Jim Pendleton of Osage Audio has a unique business model. He makes audio house calls!

Upon appointment, prospective customers can arrange an in-home audition of top-flight components, in the configuration of their choice, and Jim will arrive at your door, cables in hand, to guide you on an audio journey with virtually anything you'd care to consider purchasing! The model makes perfect sense, as, in his words, "the customer would much rather hear prospective purchases in their own personal listening environment rather than in some poorly set-up store room".

I opted, instead, to visit Jim in his home, near Columbia, MO, for the grand tour. And yes, grand tour is putting it mildly! I knew I'd have a better opportunity to hear and enjoy more than a sampling of his current wares, I'd get to check out items he'd chosen for his own personal listening systems.

Among the excellent products we enjoyed were the Merrill-Williams R.E.A.L. 101 turntable with Ortofon AS212S arm, and Lyra Kleos cartridge. Coupled with EAR 324 phono stage and 534 tube amplifier, through Vienna Beethoven Concert Grand speakers, Gary Wright's 'The Light Of Smiles" came alive with a clarity and brilliance the likes of which I'd never heard it before! The warmth of the tube amp as well as the forgiving quality of the Beethoven Concert Grands, offset the somewhat bright tonality of the Kleos, and provided an example of synergy that showcased the components so well.

On to digital!

Anyone who knows me, knows of my eclectic tastes in music, and this was my first chance to get off the same-y audiophile music merry-go-round we often find ourselves on when auditioning gear in foreign environs. I compile music for archival purposes, and for my occasional forays into public radio, where I get to curate a show now and again. I compiled some of my recent findings and was very excited, not only to hear them through superior gear, but also to have another opportunity to promote sounds that rarely reach the ears of most people! Jim informed me that country was his bag, but this didn't stop me from advancing the causes of Britpop, shoegaze, and dream pop!

The next system consisted of the Sonneteer Byron CD player, Unison Research Unico Pre preamplifier, Unison Unico DM power amp, and Opera Seconda speakers. This system ticked all my boxes: clarity and definition with a whopping dollup of smooth, easy-to-enjoy sound that never gets fatiguing. With cuts from the likes of Lush, The Laurels, Darker My Love, and my personal favorite Oasis, the Sonneteer/Unison/Opera combo far exceeded my expectations, as I'd figured that it couldn't have gotten much better than the first rig! Once again, the absolutely sick level of system synergy proved that Jim truly knows sound and how to mate components for maximum effect.

If that wasn't enough, we swapped the Sonneteer for a VPI Classic II 'table with the beautiful Clearaudio Maestro V2 Ebony cartridge, and we listened to the classic "Odessey (sic) And Oracle" by The Zombies. Beautiful Mellotrons and sublime vocals dominate this period piece, and the aforementioned system with the VPI proved to be yet another winner. Once again, the right combination of offsetting effects (squarely between analytical and warm), for my ears, proved to be just the ticket to effortless, beautiful sonics that never get tiring. This was my overall favorite, though I could find absolutely nothing even remotely offensive about any of the three configs I enjoyed at Osage Audio, and I got an extra-special audition in Jim's living room to boot!

I'm a-gettin' me one of them thar newerfangled 12" licorice pizza spinner thingies, 'cause they taste so good! My old victrola could use an overhaul!

Thanks, Jim, and Osage Audio, for an excellent chance to hear awesome components in such a rarified setting! I won't soon forget the sounds and the fine hospitality I enjoyed!

Friday, October 25, 2013

Next in the Beatles' series of reviews, I offer my take on the granddaddy of full-blown, paisley psych, SPLHCB.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (often shortened to Sgt. Pepper) is the eighth studio album by English rock band the Beatles. Released in June 1967, the album included songs such as "With a Little Help from My Friends", "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", and "A Day in the Life". Continuing the artistic maturation seen on the band's album Revolver (1966), Sgt. Pepper further departed from the conventional pop rock idiom of the time and incorporated balladry, psychedelic, music hall, and symphonic influences.
During the Sgt. Pepper sessions, the group improved upon the quality of their music's production while exploring experimental recording techniques. Producer George Martin's innovative approach included the use of an orchestra. Widely acclaimed and imitated, the album cover, designed by English pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth, was inspired by a sketch by Paul McCartney that depicted the band posing in front of a collage of some of their favourite celebrities.

Sgt. Pepper was a worldwide critical and commercial success, spending 27 weeks at the top of the UK Album Chart and 15 weeks at number one on the US Billboard 200. A seminal work in the emerging psychedelic rock style, the album was critically acclaimed upon release and won four Grammy Awards in 1968. With an estimated 32 million copies sold, it is one of the world's best selling albums. Sgt. Pepper is considered by many to be the most influential and famous rock album ever, and has been named the greatest album of all time by both Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (1994) and Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2003).The album was added to the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2003, calling it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Background

By late 1965, the Beatles had grown weary of touring, and by the end of their 1966 US tour they decided to retire from live performance. Lennon commented: "We're fed up with making soft music for soft people, and we're fed up with playing for them too."Upon their return to England, rumours began to circulate that the band had decided to break up. They subsequently took an almost two-month vacation and individually became involved in their own interests. George Harrison travelled to India for six weeks to develop his sitar playing at the instruction of Ravi Shankar. In 1966, McCartney and producer George Martin collaborated on a soundtrack for the film The Family Way. Also in 1966, John Lennon acted in How I Won the War, and he attended art showings, such as one at the Indica Gallery where he met his future wife Yoko Ono. Ringo Starr used the break to spend more time with his wife and first child. In November, during a return flight to London from Kenya, where he had been on holiday with tour manager Mal Evans, McCartney had the creative idea that would first become a song, and would eventually inspire the Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band concept. McCartney commented: "We did try performing some songs off [Revolver], but there were so many complicated overdubs we can't do them justice. Now we can record anything we want, and it won't matter. And what we want is to raise the bar a notch, to make our best album ever."

Concept

When the Beatles had given up touring, Lennon said that they could "send out four waxworks ... and that would satisfy the crowds",and McCartney later explained, "We were fed up with being the Beatles. We really hated that fucking four little mop-top approach. We were not boys, we were men ... and thought of ourselves as artists rather than just performers". In early February McCartney had the idea of recording an album that would represent a performance by a fictitious band. This alter ego group would give the band the freedom to experiment musically. McCartney explained: "I thought, let's not be ourselves. Let's develop alter egos ... it won't be us making all that sound, it won't be the Beatles, it'll be this other band, so we'll be able to lose our identities in this". Martin wrote of the fictitious band concept: "'Sergeant Pepper' itself didn't appear until halfway through making the album. It was Paul's song, just an ordinary rock number ... but when we had finished it, Paul said, 'Why don't we make the album as though the Pepper band really existed, as though Sergeant Pepper was making the record? We'll dub in effects and things.' I loved the idea, and from that moment on it was as though Pepper had a life of its own".
The album starts with the title song, which introduces Sgt. Pepper's band itself; this song segues into a sung introduction for bandleader "Billy Shears" (Starr), who performs "With a Little Help from My Friends". A reprise version of the title song appears on side two of the album just prior to the climactic "A Day in the Life", creating a bookend effect. However, the band effectively abandoned the concept other than the first two songs and the reprise. Lennon was unequivocal in stating that the songs he wrote for the album had nothing to do with the Sgt. Pepper concept, and further noted that none of the other songs did either, saying "Every other song could have been on any other album". In spite of Lennon's statements to the contrary, the album has been widely heralded as an early and groundbreaking example of the concept album.

Production

McCartney has repeatedly stated that the single biggest influence on Sgt. Pepper's was the Beach Boys album Pet Sounds. The album had a profound effect on McCartney and the other Beatles, specifically the unorthodox instrumentation and complicated vocal harmonies. Sound engineer Geoff Emerick has noted how the record was often played in the studio so he and the other sound engineers could hear the sounds the Beatles wanted to achieve. It also led McCartney to develop a new melodically-focused style of bass guitar playing that would become prevalent on many of his recordings afterward. George Martin has also stated that "without Pet Sounds, Sgt. Pepper wouldn't have happened... Pepper was an attempt to equal Pet Sounds."

The Beatles began sessions for the album in late November 1966 with a series of recordings that were to form an album thematically linked to their childhoods. The initial results of this effort produced "Strawberry Fields Forever", "When I'm Sixty-Four" and "Penny Lane". "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" were released as a double A-sided single in February 1967 after EMI and Epstein pressured Martin for a single. Once the single was released the childhood concept was abandoned in favour of Sgt. Pepper, and in keeping with the group's usual practice, the single tracks were not included on the LP (a decision Martin states he now regrets).They were released only as a single in the UK and Canada at the time but were included as part of the American LP version of Magical Mystery Tour (which was issued as a six-track double EP in Britain). The Harrison composition "Only a Northern Song" was also recorded during the Sgt. Pepper sessions but did not see a release until the soundtrack album for the animated film Yellow Submarine, released in January 1969.

As EMI's premier act and the world's most successful rock group, the Beatles had almost unlimited access to Abbey Road Studios. By 1967, all of the Sgt. Pepper tracks could be recorded at Abbey Road using mono, stereo and four-track recorders. Although eight-track tape recorders were already available in the US, the first eight-tracks were not operational in commercial studios in London until late 1967, shortly after the album was released. Like its predecessors, the recording made extensive use of the technique known as "bouncing down" (also known at that time as a "reduction mix"), in which a number of tracks were recorded across the four tracks of one recorder, which were then mixed and dubbed down onto one or several tracks of the master four-track machine. This enabled the Abbey Road engineers to give the group a virtual multi-track studio.

Relatively new modular effects units were used, like the wah-wah pedal and fuzzbox, and running voices and instruments through a Leslie speaker. Several then-new production effects feature extensively on the recordings. One of the most important was automatic double tracking (ADT), a system that used tape recorders to create a simultaneous doubling of a sound. Although it had long been recognised that using multitrack tape to record "doubled" lead vocals produced a greatly enhanced sound, it had always been necessary to record such vocal tracks twice; a task which was both tedious and exacting. ADT was invented especially for the band by EMI engineer Ken Townsend in 1966, mainly at the behest of Lennon, who hated tracking sessions and regularly expressed a desire for a technical solution to the problem. ADT quickly became a near-universal recording practice in popular music. Martin, having fun at Lennon's expense, described the new technique to an inquisitive Lennon as a "double-bifurcated sploshing flange". The anecdote explains one variation of how the term "flanging" came to be associated with this recording effect.Also important was varispeeding, the technique of recording various tracks on a multi-track tape at slightly different tape speeds, which was used extensively on their vocals in this period. The speeding up of vocals became a widespread technique in pop production. The band also used the effect on portions of their backing tracks (as on "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds") to give them a "thicker" and more diffuse sound.

"Within You Without You" was recorded on 15 March with Harrison on vocals, sitar and tambura; the other instruments (tabla, dilruba, swarmandel, and an additional tambura) were played by four London-based Indian musicians. None of the other Beatles participated in the recording.For the 17 March recording of "She's Leaving Home", McCartney hired Mike Leander to arrange the string section as Martin was occupied producing one of his other artists, Cilla Black.
The lyrics for "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" were adapted from a Victorian circus poster for Pablo Fanque's circus, which Lennon had bought at an antique shop in Kent on the day of filming the promotional clip for "Strawberry Fields Forever" there. The sound collage was created by Martin and his engineers, who collected recordings of calliopes and fairground organs, which were then cut into strips of various lengths, thrown into a box, mixed up and edited together in random order, creating a long loop which was mixed in during final production.

This album also makes heavy use of keyboard instruments: a grand piano is used on tracks such as "A Day in the Life", a Lowrey organ is used for "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", a harpsichord can be heard on "Fixing a Hole", and Martin played a harmonium on "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!". An electric piano, upright piano, Hammond organ and glockenspiel can also be heard on the record. Harrison used a tambura on several tracks, including "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "Getting Better".

The thunderous piano chord that concludes "A Day in the Life", and the album, was produced by assembling three grand pianos in the studio and playing an E chord on each simultaneously. Together on cue, Lennon, Starr, McCartney and assistant Mal Evans hammered the keys on the assembled pianos and held down the chord. The sound from the pianos was then mixed up with compression and increasing gain on the volume to draw out the sound to maximum sustain.
British pressings of the album (in its original LP form that was later released on CD), end with a 15-kilohertz high-frequency tone (put on the album at Lennon's suggestion and said to be "especially intended to annoy your dog"), followed by an endless loop of laughter and gibberish made by the run-out groove looping back into itself. The loop (but not the tone) made its US debut on the 1980 Rarities compilation, titled "Sgt. Pepper Inner Groove". However, it is only featured as a two-second fragment at the end of side two rather than an actual loop in the run-out groove. The CD version of "Sgt. Pepper Inner Groove" is actually a bit shorter than that one found on the original UK vinyl pressing. The sound in the loop caused some controversy when it was interpreted as a secret message. McCartney later told his biographer Barry Miles that in the summer of 1967 a group of kids came up to him complaining about a lewd message hidden in it when played backwards. He told them, "You're wrong, it's actually just 'It really couldn't be any other'". He took them to his house to play the record backwards to them, and it turned out that the passage sounded to him very much like "We'll fuck you like Superman". McCartney recounted to Miles that "we had certainly had not intended to do that but probably when you turn anything backwards it sounds like something ... if you look hard enough you can make something out of anything". When the album was repressed for LP release in 2012, it took several attempts to successfully reproduce the run-out groove effect.

Lyrics

Concerns that lyrics in Sgt. Pepper referred to recreational drug use led to several songs from the album being banned by the BBC. The album's closing track, "A Day in the Life", includes the phrase "I'd love to turn you on". The BBC banned the song from airplay on the basis of this line, claiming it could "encourage a permissive attitude toward drug-taking". Both Lennon and McCartney denied any drug-related interpretation of the song at the time,although McCartney's later comments in The Beatles Anthology documentary regarding the writing of the lyric make it clear that the drug reference was indeed deliberate.

"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" also became the subject of speculation regarding its meaning, as many believed that the words of the chorus were code for LSD. The BBC used this as their basis for banning the song from British radio. Again, Lennon consistently denied this interpretation of the song, maintaining that the song describes a surreal dreamscape inspired by a picture drawn by his son Julian.However, during a newspaper interview in 2004, McCartney was quoted as saying:

'Lucy in the Sky,' that's pretty obvious. There's others that make subtle hints about drugs, but, you know, it's easy to overestimate the influence of drugs ... Just about everyone was doing drugs in one form or another and we were no different, but the writing was too important for us to mess it up by getting off our heads all the time.

— Paul McCartney

At other times, though, McCartney seems to have contradicted himself. "When [Martin] was doing his TV programme on Pepper," McCartney is quoted as saying, "he asked me, 'Do you know what caused Pepper?' I said, 'In one word, George, drugs. Pot.' And George said, 'No, no. But you weren't on it all the time.' 'Yes, we were.' Sgt. Pepper was a drug album."

Cover artwork

The Grammy Award-winning album packaging was art-directed by Robert Fraser, designed by Peter Blake and Jann Haworth, his wife and artistic partner, and photographed by Michael Cooper. It featured a colourful collage of life-sized cardboard models of famous people on the front of the album cover and the lyrics printed in full on the back cover, the first time this had been done on a rock LP.In the guise of the Sgt. Pepper band, the Beatles were dressed in custom-made military-style outfits made of satin dyed in day-glo colours. The suits were designed by Manuel Cuevas. Among the insignia on their uniforms are: MBE medals on McCartney's and Harrison's jackets, the Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom on Lennon's right sleeve and an Ontario Provincial Police flash on McCartney's sleeve.

The centre of the cover depicts the Beatles standing behind a drum skin, on which are painted the words of the album's title. The skin was painted by fairground artist Joe Ephgrave. A collage depicts around 60 famous people, including writers, musicians, film stars, and (at Harrison's request) a number of Indian gurus. The final grouping included Marlene Dietrich, Carl Gustav Jung, W.C. Fields, Diana Dors, Bob Dylan, Issy Bonn, Marilyn Monroe, Aldous Huxley, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Sigmund Freud, Aleister Crowley, T. E. Lawrence, Lewis Carroll, Edgar Allan Poe, Karl Marx, Sir Robert Peel, Oscar Wilde, H. G. Wells, Marlon Brando, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, and Lenny Bruce.Also included was the image of the original Beatles' bassist, the late Stuart Sutcliffe. Pete Best said in a later NPR interview that Lennon borrowed family medals from his (Best's) mother Mona for the shoot, on condition that he did not lose them. Adolf Hitler and Jesus Christ were requested by Lennon, but ultimately they were left out. A photo also exists of a rejected cardboard printout with a cloth draped over its head; its identity is unknown. The final cost for the cover art was nearly £3,000 (equivalent to £46,104 today) an extravagant sum for a time when album covers would typically cost around £50.

Influence

The album is often said to be a huge influence in the development of progressive rock music, and rock music generally. It has been included in numerous lists about progressive rock albums and influences. Nick Mason, drummer of pioneering progressive rock group Pink Floyd has said himself that Ringo's drumming on the album has hugely influenced him.
The album was also featured on Classic Rock magazine's list "50 albums that built Prog Rock".

A Day In The Life, the last track on the album, is often cited by music critics and reviewers as maybe the first ever progressive rock song, due to it's complex arrangement, structure and sound that was unheard of in rock music at the time. Phil Collins, drummer of the prog-rock band Genesis has said this of Ringo's playing on the song: "Starr is vastly underrated. The drum fills on the song 'A Day in the Life' are very complex things. You could take a great drummer today and say, 'I want it like that.' He wouldn't know what to do."

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores

Source

Rating

Allmusic

The A.V. Club

B+

Robert Christgau

A

Crawdaddy!

The Daily Telegraph

Encyclopedia of Popular Music

Paste

89/100

Pitchfork Media

10/10

The Rolling Stone Album Guide

Sputnikmusic

5/5

Upon its release on 1 June 1967, Sgt. Pepper received critical acclaim. Various reviews appearing in the mainstream press and trade publications throughout June 1967, immediately after the album's release, were generally positive. In The Times, prominent critic Kenneth Tynan described Sgt. Pepper as "a decisive moment in the history of Western civilisation". Richard Poirier wrote "listening to the Sgt. Pepper album one thinks not simply of the history of popular music but the history of this century."
In a negative review, Richard Goldstein of The New York Times found the album "spoiled" and felt that it "reek[ed]" of "special effects, dazzling but ultimately fraudulent". After he was criticized for his review, Goldstein published a response a month later, in which he said that he was worried "as a critic" that the album was not on-par with the best of the Beatles' previous work, despite being "better than 80 per cent of the music around today". He called it an "in-between experience, a chic", and felt that when the novelty of its production tricks wears off, "and the compositions are stripped to their musical and lyrical essentials, Sergeant Pepper will be Beatles baroque—an elaboration without improvement".Robert Christgau of The Village Voice wrote in an article at the time that the album is "a consolidation, more intricate than Revolver but not more substantial. Part of Goldstein's mistake, I think, has been to allow all the filters and reverbs and orchestral effects and overdubs to deafen him to the stuff underneath, which was pretty nice, and to fall victim to overanticipation." He called the album "a dozen good songs and true" in a 1977 retrospective review, and stated, "Perhaps they're too precisely performed, but I'm not going to complain."
In his Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Colin Larkin wrote that the album "turned out to be no mere pop album but a cultural icon embracing the constituent elements of the 60s' youth culture: pop art, garish fashion, drugs, instant mysticism and freedom from parental control." In a 1987 review for Q, Charles Shaar Murray commented that the album "remains a central pillar of the mythology and iconography of the late '60s." Anthony DeCurtis of Rolling Stone argued that it "revolutionized rock & roll" and that its "immensely pleasurable trip has earned Sgt. Pepper its place as the best record of the past twenty years." DeCurtis found it to be "not only the Beatles' most artistically ambitious album but their funniest" and cited its "fun-loving experimentalism" as the album's "best legacy for our time." By contrast, Christgau said that, "although Sgt. Pepper is thought of as the most influential of all rock masterpieces, it is really only the most famous. In retrospect it seems peculiarly apollonian—precise, controlled, even stiff—and it is clearly peripheral to the rock mainstream", and asserted that "the 'concept album' idea was embodied more fruitfully—and earlier in Rubber Soul." Mark Kemp of Paste wrote similarly, "for all its sonic richness, Sgt. Pepper remains one of rock's most overrated albums—its songwriting isn’t nearly as consistent as Revolver's, and its storyline is abandoned after the first two tracks and artificially reprised near the end."

Commercial performance

The album also received popular acclaim. It was a global hit, with huge sales in Europe, North and South America, Africa, Japan, Australia, and even on the black market in the Soviet Union, where their albums were very popular and widely available.In the UK it debuted at number eight and the next week reached number one where it stayed for 23 consecutive weeks. It was knocked off the top by The Sound of Music on the week ending 18 November 1967. Eventually it spent more weeks at the top, including the competitive Christmas week. When the CD edition was released on 1 June 1987, it reached number 3. In June 1992, the CD was re-promoted to commemorate its 25th Anniversary, and charted at number six. In 2007, commemorating 40 years of its release, Sgt. Pepper again re-entered the charts at number 47 in the UK. In all, the album spent a total of 201 weeks on the UK charts, and is the third biggest-selling album in the UK chart history behind ABBA's Gold: Greatest Hits and Queen's Greatest Hits.Sgt. Pepper won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, the first rock album to do so, and Best Contemporary Album in 1968. Sgt. Pepper is one of the world's best selling albums, with 11 million RIAA certified copies sold in the US.The album won Best British Album at the first Brit Awards in 1977.

Frank Zappa, whose Freak Out! was cited as an influence on the album, accused the group of co-opting the flower power aesthetic for monetary gain, saying in a Rolling Stone article that he felt "they were only in it for the money."

Legacy

Sgt. Pepper has been named on many lists of the best rock albums. In 1997 Sgt. Pepper was named the number one greatest album of all time in a "Music of the Millennium" poll conducted by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM. In 1998 Q magazine readers placed it at number seven, while in 2003 the TV network VH1 placed it at number 10. In 2005, the album was ranked number 1 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The publisher called it "the most important rock & roll album ever made ... by the greatest rock & roll group of all time." In 2006, the album was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 best albums of all time. In 2002, Q magazine placed it at number 13 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.The album was named as one of Classic Rock magazine's "50 Albums That Built Prog Rock". In 2003, it was one of 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry. In July 2008 the "iconic bass drum skin" used on the front cover sold at auction for €670,000 (US$879,000).In November 2009, the entire album was made available to download for The Beatles: Rock Band on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii. The game disc already had the album's title track, "With a Little Help from My Friends", "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", "Getting Better" and "Good Morning Good Morning"; the download provides the remaining tracks from the album. On 30 March 2013, a rare, signed (by all four Beatles) copy of the album was sold at Dallas-based Heritage Auctions to an unnamed buyer from the Midwestern United States for $290,500.

Just think, in 1986, at Chicago's Beatlefest, I could have purchased at auction, a copy of "Help!" signed by all four Moptops for a measly sum of $700! I'd be freaking rich now!

SPLHCB will always remain the benchmark of all things psychedelic, and, as it was being released in June of 1967, more concoctions were brewing in the psychedelic cauldron known as Abbey Road Studios, this time helmed by former Beatles engineer Norman Smith.

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